Bill escrow device



sheet Filed Sept.

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BILL ESCROW DEVICE Filed Sept. 5. 1967 .Sheet f2 of2 M; ig n FITB- 4- INVENTORS I United States Patent Olce 3,442,363 Patented May 6, 1969 U.S. Cl. 194-4 8 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE An escrow device for currency validators having two belts with a common run extending through a serpentine path which occupies the majority of the length of the belts and is open at both ends with one end of the common run positioned adjacent to the validator discharge for taking validated bills and the other end positioned remote from the validator discharge for discharging bills from the escrow device. The common run has a length of between four and twenty-live times the length of the bills which are to be accumulated therein. The escrow device may also include the folllowing features: means for sorting bills of different denominations, reverse drive means for delivering bills from the escrow device back through the validator, counting means for counting out change in low value bills for a higher value bill, and photocell controlled drive means for the escrow belts to position bills in the common run closely spaced together, but positively separated from each other even when any sorting means is used.

Brief summary This invention relates to bill escrow devices useable with currency validators such as validators like that shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,256,968 granted to Micro- Magnetic Industries as assignee of John B. Riddle and Robert B. McLaughlin.

A currency validator has been available on the market for accepting one and five dollar bills. This one-five validator is built like the validator shown in the above identitled patent with recognizing means added to the validator for recognizing five dollar bills in addition to one dollar bills. That validator delivers the one and tive dollar bills along a delivery path and generates first and second electrical signals indicating that tive dollar and one dollar bills, respectively, have been validated. These electrical signals are generated just before final delivery of the bill which has been validated. The validator also contains apparatus similar to that shown in the patent for indicating when a bill or other object is in the validator, regardless of its position in the validator. That apparatus, while it includes several separate parts and switches, s connected to circuit elements which are the equivalent of a single switch which is closed when an object is in the validator at any location.

The apparatus of this invention may be added to the above mentioned one-five validator for handling the bills which are validated by the validator. The apparatus of this invention includes a bill accumulator which may be used to hold validated bills in escrow before a customer selects a purchase, but more importantly, this escrow device may be used with a bill denomination separator to provide an automatic device for giving previously validated bills as change for a validated five dollar bill. A bill diverter is mounted between the bill accumulator and the delivery belts of the validator, and the diverter is operated in response to the tive dollar validation signal to intercept a tive dollar bill being delivered by the validator and divert that bill to a strong box. When a one dollar bill is validated and passes from the validator, it passes through the diverter to the input side of the bill acc-umulator. The bill accumulator is provided with advancing means controlled by a photocell switch which advances the accumulator when a portion of a bill is present at the input side of the accumulator. Thus, when a one dollar bill is presented to the accumulator, the accumulator advances to draw in the one dollar bill until an open space is provided adjacent to the trailing edge of the bill through which light can pass to a photocell. With this drive control arrangement for the accumulator, the accumulator s-upports bills in closely spaced relation with a lnite distance between each bill even when tive dollar bills are periodically validated by the validator and diverted from the accumulator input.

The photocell which controls advancement of bills into the accumulator also functions with a stepping switch to count bills out of the accumulator and control and drive means are provided for driving the accumulator in reverse to give out as change for a five dollar bill a predetermined number of previously validated one dollar bills which have been accumulated -in the accumulator.

The accumulator is constructed of a pair of endless belts supported together with a common run of the two belts extending through a serpentine path which has a length equal to between four and twenty-tive times the length of the bills to be accumulated. One end of the common run is positioned adjacent to the validator discharge to receive and draw in validated bills, and the other end of the common run is positioned adjacent to the strong box so that once the accumulator is full of bills, further operation of the device causes one bill to be discharged from the accumulator into the strong box for each bill which is introduced into the accumulator. In this manner, the accumulator provides a reservoir of a limited number of previously validated one dollar bills which may be given out as change for five dollar bills. The number of bills which is thus available as change is sutliciently limited that the liability of loss from the machine because of malfunction or tampering is limited to the value of the small number of bills available in the accumulator at any time.

Automatic control means are provided for giving one dollar bills as change for tive dollar bills, and a simple interlock is provided to prevent validation of a tive dollar bill when insuilicient one dollar bills are present in the accumulator to give change.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the attached drawings in which:

FIG. l is a persepective view partially in section of the discharge end of a currency validator and the new escrow device of this invention with FIG. 1 illustrating schematically the electrical system which is employed for controlling the device;

FIG. 2 is a plan View of the central section of the apparatus of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view through the apparatus of FIG. 2 as indicated at 3-3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the plane indicated at 4 4 in FIG. 1.

Referring now in detail to the drawings and particularly to FIG. l, the validator with which the device is used may include a cabinet 10 with structural support elements 12 mounted thereon and supporting eight rollers 14 over which are entrained drive belts 16. The validator has a validator drive motor 18 which drives transport means (not shown) in the cabinet 10 and the rollers 14 for transporting money through the validator. The validator drive motor 18 is a reversible motor so that it may be operated forward to deliver validated bills to the accumulator, and it may be operated in reverse to return rejected bills to the customer and also to return to the customer one dollar bills given in change for live dollar bills. The validator also includes circuit elements providing a clear switch 2l) and three electrical output lines for transmitting reject, one dollar accept, and five dollar accept signals when a bill is rejected or one or five dollar bills are accepted. These reject and accept ter minals of the validator are indicated at 22, 24 and 26. The clear switch 20 may take the form of proximity switches such as those shown in the above identified patent or photocell switches coupled with relays or solid state components which change the condition of the switch when a bill or test bill is present in the validator at any point. Clear switch 20 is illustrated in FIG. 1 in its clear condition with the switch arm up, and at any time that a bill is present in the validator or in the delivery belts 16 thereof, the switch arm of switch 20 moves to its lower position connected to a positive source of voltage.

The accumulator The accumulator includes structural panels 28 rigidly attached to the structural members and 12 of the validator and supporting the axles 30 of a plurality of rollers 32-56. One endless belt is entrained over these rollers from roller S2 sequentially over rollers 34-46 and hence back to roller 52 over roller 50. The other belt is er1- trained from roller 32 hence over rollers 34-48 and back to roller 32 over rollers 54 and 56. In this way, the rollers support the two belts with a common run extending from the bite between rollers 32 and 52 hence over rollers 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46 to the bite between rollers 48 and 50. As illustrated in FIG. 1, this common run of the two belts is arranged in a serpentine path, and the length of the path is approximately twelve times the length of bills to be accepted by the accumulator plus eleven times the space Iwhich is left between those bills. The bite between the rollers 32 and 52 provides an input end to the common run which is positioned to receive bills delivered from the delivery belts 16 of the validator, and the bite between rollers 48 and 50 provides a discharge end of the common run from which bills are discharged downwardly into the mouth 58 of a strong box. The two belts 60 and 62 of the accumulator are driven by means of a reversible electric motor `64 connected by a belt 66 and pulleys 68 to the axle of roller 34. The axle of roller 34 is also connected to the axle of roller 42 by means of drive gears 70 and 72 on those axles connected to an idler gear 74 which is mounted on a stub shaft on the support members 28 (FIG. 4).

A light source 80 and photocell switch 82 are mounted adjacent to the rollers 32 and S2 on opposite sides of the path of bills moving into those rollers for sensing the presence of a bill being presented to the accumulator. As illustrated in the upper portion of FIG. 1, the photocell switch 82 is of a type similar to the switch 20 in which the switch arm moves up to aA switch open position when no bill is present between the light source 80 and photocell 82, and the switch arm moves down to a switch closed position connected to a positive source of voltage when a bill is present between the light source and photocell.

An additional light source 84 and photocell 86 (see FIG. 1 and 4) are mounted on the structural members 28 inside the accumulator at a position to sense the fifth bill in the accumulator thereby indicating the presence of enough one dollar bills in the accumulator to give change for a validated five dollar bill. The photocell switch 68 is connected as illustrated in the upper part of FIG. 1 to close an electrical circuit when no bill is present between the light source 84 and photocell 86 and to open the circuit when a bill is present.

The diverter A slotted roller 71 is mounted on an axle 73 between the accumulator and the bill delivery belts 16. A pivot shaft 75 is mounted adjacent to the slotted roller 71 supported by the structural members 28 and also supporting a blade 77 -best seen in FIG. 2. The blade 77 includes a pair of ears 79 extending into the slots in roller 71, and the bulk of the blade 77 extends in between the rollers 14 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. A lever arm 81 is mounted on the shaft 75 for rocking the blade between the positions illustrated in FIG. 3, and a spring loaded solenoid operated actuator 83 is connected to the lever arm 81 for rocking the blade 77. The actuator 83 has `a spring which returns the blade 77 to the position illustrated in full line in FIG. 3, and when an electrical current is delivered to the actuator 83, the actuator moves the blade 77 to the phantom line position of FIG. 3 where the blade intercepts the leading edge of a bill moving with the belt 16 and diverts the bill downwardly to the cash box as illustrated by the arrow 85 in FIG. 1.

An additional roller like the roller 71 may be mounted above the roller 71 in engagement therewith for gripping a bill therebetween, but it has been found that this roller may be eliminated yand replaced by guide plates 87 and 88 with the guide plate 88 being provided with an aperture therethrough for the passage of light to the photocell 82 (FIG. 2).

The control circuit As illustrated in the upper portion of FIG. 1, the electrical components of the apparatus described above are connected to additional control elements to provide automatic handing and change payout for the bills validated by the validator. These additional control elements in clude a validator reverse relay 90 having two arms and associated contacts, an escrow reverse relay 92 having a single arm and contacts, a five dollar accept relay 94 with two arms and associated contacts, `a live position stepper switch 96, and a plurality of diodes 98. The stepper switch 96 is of the type in which the stepper arm is `advanced one position each time an electrical pulse is applied to the coil of the stepper, and the stepper also advances from the fifth terminal to the first in response to a pulse. As illustrated in the drawing, the second through the ifth terminals of the stepper are connected together and connected to the source of positive voltage.

Currency validators of the type mentioned in the above identified patent are frequently used in dollar bill change making machines which contain a solenoid operated plunger which moves to dispense one dollars worth of coin change in response to an electrical pulse. The apparatus of this invention preferably includes such a one dollar change payout device as indicated at 100 in FIG. 1.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the control circuit illustrated in FIG. 1 includes mechanically operating switch devices such as relays, switches and the stepper switch, but these devices may be replaced by solid state circuit components.

Operation.

With reference to FIG. l, the apparatus illustrated therein operates as follows: When a one dollar bill is presented to the validator 10 it passes through the validator between the belts 16, and while it is in the validator the switch 20 closes to its arm down positions supplying voltage through relay 90 to drive the validator drive motor 18 forward. While the switch 20 is `still in this condition, a one dollar accept signal is conducted along line 24 to energize the payout device 100 and dispense one dollars worth of change. The clear switch 20 keeps the validator motor 18 operating forward until the one dollar bill has cleared the belt 16 and has closed the photocell switch 82 which in turn drives the accumulator motor 64 forward until the trailing edge of the bill clears the photocell 62. If a reject signal is generated prior to a one dollar accept signal, the reject signal energizes relay 90 to drive the validator motor 18 in reverse, and the validator motor 18 is held in reverse until the clear switch 20 opens.

When a five dollar bill passes through the validator and is accepted, the validator motor 18 is driven forward until the clear switch 20 opens. While the clear switch 20 is in its arms down position, a five dollar accept signal is conducted along line 26 which energizes relay 94 and simultaneously operates change payout device 100. It will be noted that switch 86 connected between the live dollar accept line and `the relay 90 will cause the relay 90 to be energized with a reject signal by the five dollar accept signal if there are insufficient bills in the accumulator to permit four one dollar bills to be given out in change. Additionally, the operation of payout devices 100 is slightly delayed so that one dollar change will not be delivered if the five dollar bill is rejected for inadequate supply of one dollar bills.

Thus, while the switch 20 is in its arm down position, the relay 94 is energized by a five dollar accept signal and one dollar in coin change dispensed. T he relay 94 is held energized by its own arms through switch contacts of relay 90 and the output of this circuit also` energizes the device 83 which lifts the diverter blade 77 to divert the live dollar bill downwardly along the path of arrow 85. The validator motor continues in forward operation until the clear switch 20 clears and moves to its arm up position at which positive voltage from one of the switch arms of relay 94 passes through switch 20 to start driving the escrow motor 64 in reverse andto operate the escrow motor reverse relay 92. The escrow motor 64 continues in reverse operation (the validator motor 18 is still running forward) until the leading edge of a bill passes over the photocell switch 82 and causes the photocell switch 82 to close and connect positive voltage through the switch arm of relay 92 to the coil of the stepper switch 96. This causes the stepper to move one step to contact number two which applies positive voltage to the reject line 22 thereby throwing the validator drive motor into reverse and deenergizing the five dollar accept relay 94. It should be noted that the validator drive motor 18 will now be held in reverse as long as the stepper switch 96 is in any one of its second through fifth positions because both switch contacts of the clear switch 20 are connected to power.

As the leading edge of the second bill passes photocell switch 82, the stepper is pulsed from its second to its third contact. As the leading edge of the third bill passes the photocell 82, the stepper is pulsed from its third to its fourth contact, and as the leading edge of the fourth bill passes the photocell switch 82, the stepper is pulsed from its fourth to its fifth contact. These Afour bills which have been dispensed from the accumulator will continue in reverse through the delivery belt 16 of the validator to be passed through the validator pack to the customer. As the leading edge of the fifth bill in the validator passes the photocell switch 82, the stepper 96 is pulsed from its fth contact back to its first contact, and this removes power from the escrow motor reverse relay 92 causing this relay to return to its relaxed position and drive the escrow motor `64 forward until the fifth bill is returned into the accumulator clear of the photocell switch 82. The escrow motor 64 will shut down in this manner while the four bills being dispensed are still returning -through the validator to the customer, and when the four bills clear the validator, the switch 20 moves to its arrn up position returning the control circuit to its original condition where it can accept additional one dollar bills, and if five one dollar bills are still present in the accumulator, the device can accept an additional tive dollar bill.

While certain features and advantages of the invention have been described in detail herein, it is obvious that many modifications thereof may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. In apparatus for recognizing 'paper currency having delivery means for delivering an accepted bill along a predetermined path,'the improved escrow device comprising a pair of endless belts having the majority of their lengths positioned adjacent to each other and forming a common belt run which has a length equal to between four and twenty-five times the length of bills to be held thereby with a minority of the length of each belt forming a return run extending from one end of said common run back to the other end of said common run, a plurality of rollers supporting said belts and including rollers supporting said common run of said belts under tension in a serpentine path whereby bills positioned between said belts in said common run will be gripped by said belts and moved along said common run when said belts are moved, said rollers having entry rollers positioned at one end of said common run and exit rollers positioned at the other end of said common run with said entry and exit rollers supporting the ends of said common run and guiding said return runs of said belts into and out of said common run, means supporting said entry rollers adjacent to said delivery means for receiving bills from said delivery means and gripping said bills between said belts in said common run, means supporting said exit rollers remote from said delivery means for discharging bills from said common run, drive means for at least one of said rollers for moving said common run along its length between said entry and exit rollers, and bill diverter means between said delivery means and said entry rollers for diverting bills of higher denominations from said entry rollers whereby only bills of lower denomination are accumulated in said escrow means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 characterized further by the inclusion of reversing means for said drive means, whereby bills of lower denominations accumulated in said escrow means are delivered back to said delivery means for change for bills of higher denominations.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 characterized further by the inclusion of a light source on one side of the path of bills through said escrow device and a photosensitive detector on the other side of said path for counting bills in said path.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 characterized further by the inclusion of control means for driving said drive means forward when said delivery means is operated and preventing forward motion of said drive means when said delivery means is stopped and when said diverter means is operated.

5. In apparatus for recognizing paper currency having delivery means for delivering along a predetermined path first bills of a higher denomination and second `bills of a lower denomination while generating corresponding first and second electrical signals indicating the validation of said tirst and second bills, they improved means for storing said bills which comprises:

(A) bill accumulator means positioned adjacent to said path for accepting bills delivered thereto and sequentially advancing and physically supporting said accepted bills in series;

(B) a strong box for holding bills in random physical condition;

(C) bill diverter means positioned between said delivery means and said accumulator means and movable between a first position for passing bills from said dclivery means to said accumulator means and a second position for diverting bills from said delivery means to said strong box;

(D) control means connected to said diverter means and said validator for moving said diverter means to said second position responsive to said first electrical signal, and

(E) control means for said accumulator means for advancing said accumulator means when a bill passes thereto from said diverter means.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 characterized further by the inclusion of control and counting means for said accumulator means for delivering a predetermined number of bills from said accumulator means responsive to the generation of said first electrical signal whereby a plurality of said second bills previously validated by said validator and accumulated by said accumulator are delivered as change for one of said first bills.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 in which said control and counting means includes reverse drive means for said accumulating means for delivering said bills from said accumulating means back to said delivery means.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 in which said accumulator means comprises a pair of endless belts supported together with a common run thereof arranged in a serpentine path wtih said common run having an input end adjacent to 8 said diverter means, a discharge end adjacent to said strong box, and a length of between four and twenty-tive times the length of a bill presented thereto by said diverter means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,269,117 1/1942 London 194-4 2,936,170 5/1960 Herrick et al. 271-6 X 3,072,237 1/1963 Simjian 133-1 X 3,108,680 10/1963 Ellis et al 133-1 X SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner. 

